Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-18

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries, paying for things using mobile phone (cellphone) apps is becoming increasingly common. Does this development have more advantages or more disadvantages?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

In the concurrent times, due to the advent of technology people prefer to pay their bills using the mobile phones all over the globe. I agree that this factor render several benefits like convenience and easy access but one should not overlook the drawbacks this endeavour fetch.

To commence with, some who propose their view point supporting the benefits of this phenomenon is convenient to pay their bills or doing shopping. To explain, people need not have to carry exact paper money for which they need to stand in the larger queue to withdraw and pay the required money, instead they can just tap their mobile application. Similarly, this methods also enable one to pay the bills more rapidly without taking much time unlike offline payments, where one needs to wait until their turn comes. For example, people who are travelling via metros or buses, they can just tap their cell phones to get the entry access instead waiting for the physical ticket to travel.

In contrast, others who believe online payments have umpteen demerits due to the increasing number of fraud activities and cybercrimes. These methods give easy access to the scammers and hackers because they steal all the personal information from the payment portals and some individuals are not much aware of these crime activities and when they are approached by some emails or messages, they fail to recognise the scam emails and share their personal information to the criminals. Furthermore, these transactions require high speed interest access and also render certain concerns during the network issues.

To conclude, despite having a few drawbacks, which can be alleviated creating more awareness and taking extra precaution to protect the account. But I truly believe that, advantages outweigh the disadvantages due to the convenience and easy payments.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task, providing both advantages and disadvantages before clearly stating a position in the conclusion. The ideas are relevant, such as convenience and security concerns. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited; for instance, the point about 'network issues' is mentioned but not fully explored. The position is clear throughout, but the supporting arguments could be more thoroughly extended to reach a higher band. Overall, the response is well-structured and directly answers the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To commence with', 'Similarly', and 'In contrast', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'some who propose their view point supporting the benefits'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different ideas. While the progression of ideas is generally clear, the flow between sentences could be improved for better cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task. You use some good phrases like 'advent of technology', 'alleviated', and 'fraud activities'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'concurrent times' (instead of 'contemporary times'), 'this endeavour fetch' (should be 'fetches'), and 'high speed interest access' (likely meant 'internet'). These errors do not impede communication, but they show a lack of precision in using less common lexical items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('this methods also enable', 'some who propose... is convenient') and awkward phrasing ('instead waiting for'). While you attempt complex sentences, they are often marred by these errors. Punctuation is generally functional, but the frequency of grammatical slips prevents the response from reaching a higher band. Most sentences are understandable, but the control over complex structures needs improvement.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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